US President Donald Trump presented himself as a defender of Christians. However, his administration recently rejected asylum applications from more than a hundred Iranian Christians. They desperately need sanctuary: the Islamic Republic is among the world’s worst religious persecutors. Does the president dislike foreigners more than he likes Christians?

The Iranians, including other non-Muslims and residents of other nations, have been stuck in Vienna for more than a year hoping to resettle in America. They applied under the Lautenberg Amendment, which originally was passed to protect Soviet Jews. Over the years roughly thirty-three thousand Iranian religious minorities have entered the United States under its protection. Almost 1,300 were admitted under the program last year. Approval of applicants, who are interviewed before traveling to Vienna, where U.S. officials screen them, was standard. According to Foreign Policy’s Dan de Luce: “Apart from Assyrian and Armenian Christians in Iran, members of the Jewish, Mandaean, Zoroastrian, and Bahai communities have also received refugee status and resettled in the United States under the law.”

But not this time. The Department of Homeland Security just told them no. The law requires the government to justify any denial “to the maximum extent possible,” but DHS offered no explanation. The State Department reported the obvious: program changes had resulted in “a greater number of denials in the Vienna refugee program,” like 100 percent. The question remains why.

Those rejected hope to find homes elsewhere, but after Washington’s decision Austrian police raided the waiting Iranians. They could be deported back to Iran, leaving them subject to the not-so-tender mercies of the reigning Islamist regime. Another 4,500 have registered for the program, but now seem destined to languish in Iran.

Ann Buwalda of Jubilee Campaign complained: “The U.S. has broken its promise to Iranian religious minorities.” The refugees had “traveled to Vienna at the invitation of the United States, with the understanding that they would soon be reunited with their American families.” They gave up their homes and incomes, and face persecution if they return to Iran.

The decision is inexplicable given administration policy toward Iran. Hans Van de Weerd of the International Rescue Committee highlighted the administration’s hypocrisy: “It criticizes the Iranian regime, encouraged the protests, but refuses to provide safety to those who flee and are not safe from the Iranian government.” One congressman told de Luce: “This sudden change in policy – from almost a hundred percent acceptance rate to nearly complete rejection – makes no sense, even on security grounds.”

Until now, at least, the Trump administration claimed religious liberty as a priority. In fact, the president designated January 16 as Religious Freedom Day and called America a “champion for religious freedom around the world.” Last October when visiting the Middle East Vice President Mike Pence declared that “Christianity is under unprecedented assault in those ancient lands where it first grew,” adding: “we can now see a future in many areas without a Christian faith. But tonight, I came to tell you: Help is on the way.”

Even more important has been the administration’s campaign against, even fixation with, Iran. The president has taken the lead, at times acting against the advice of his own officials. He is seeking to overturn the nuclear deal, create a Middle Eastern coalition against Tehran, and promote discontent within the Islamic Republic. President Trump even made human rights in Iran an issue, in contrast his approach to most other abusive nations, such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey.

Tehran deserves to be targeted for its systematic violation of human rights. The Islamic Republic, under control of Islamist authoritarians, is particularly hostile to religious minorities, who range from Christians and Jews to more traditional faiths including Baha’is, Zoroastrians, Mandaeans and Yarsanis. The country ranks number ten on Open Doors’ World Watch List. In some nations the problem arises from a hostile population. In Shia-majority Iran the blame overwhelmingly falls on a repressive leadership, increasingly out of step from much of the population.

At greatest risk are converts, who technically face the death penalty, though it has yet to be applied. However, attacks on religious minorities are widespread. For instance, the latest UN Human Rights Council report on Iran noted that “members of religious and ethnic minorities continued to endure abuses and discrimination and face persecution, including arrest and imprisonment, expulsion from educational institutions, denial of economic opportunities, deprivation of the rights to work, closure of businesses, and the destruction of religious sites, such as cemeteries and prayer centers.”

The Council’s Secretary-General declared Baha’is to be the country’s “most severely persecuted religious minority.” Last October the council declared that “persecution of members of the Baha’i community remained unabated.” They were variously imprisoned and denied economic and educational opportunities. However, they were not alone. The leader of the Assyrian Pentecostal Church and at least eleven converts “were reportedly convicted of ‘acting against national security and received heavy prison sentences’.”

•Text courtesy of The National Interest.

Update news